Bike been sqweaking for a while, thought it was seat tube, applied grease and it stopped. Recently saw the crackand thought i scratched it but now another appeared on the other side. Sad. Its a kona dr dew 2023, anyone here has had a similar issue. Saw a lot of similar problems with other kona frames.
by Rumi4
11 Comments
Unfortunately it is.
Yep, seems to be cracks. Is it the depth where your seat post ends?
Yes, this thing is cooked. Should be covered by warranty for the original owner, though.
As an aside, designing an extended seattube like this is simply asking for this type of failure and I can’t believe a company like Kona is still doing it.
Look inside the seat tube, do the cracks start at the vent hole into the top tube?
Everything dies
If you’re the original owner, pursue a warranty. If not, you can try asking for a crash replacement discount.
Toasted IMO. That’s a rather complex crack to re-weld (if possible without just cracking more/again) too and probably not worth it.
Should save these pictures for the “steel is the best frame material” crowd.
Alu? Yes, it’s dead. Steel? You could replace top tube and seat tube at a frame builder shop. That looks structural thou, so if you are the original owner I would claim a replacement from Kona, hoping that is still under warranty.
If it’s still under warranty get it replaced. Even if not contact kona regardless. Weird place for the break to happen.
Interesting orientation and place for cracks. It doesn’t go along the welds at all (in fact it goes straight through a weld completely undisturbed!) and it’s on the sides where forces from the seatpost should be the smallest.
Before you discard it I’d very much suggest sanding it down to bare metal to see if it’s not the paint after all.
Oh she’s dead alright.
Warranty claim time.